(EnviroNews Nature) — In a win for nature fans, the United States District Court in Arizona struck down a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (the Service/USFWS) management rule for the endangered Mexican grey wolf (Canis lupus baileyi), finding that it “provides only for short-term survival of the species and fails to further the long-term recovery of the Mexican wolf in the wild.”

The litigation was filed by a coalition of conservation organizations including the Center for Biological Diversity, Western Environmental Law Center, WildEarth Guardians, New Mexico Wilderness Alliance, and Friends of Animals. The suit took aim at a 2015 rule, which decided the fate of the Blue Range Pack in eastern Arizona — the only wild population of Mexican wolves in the U.S.

On April 2, the Court ruled, in making its determinations, the Service ignored the “best available information” for preserving the long-term survival of the species. Specifically, the Court called the agency’s allowance for a single population of 300-325 animals to be “arbitrary and capricious,” saying the agency ignored studies showing the Blue Range Pack is of poor genetic diversity and too far from other packs in Mexico to successfully propagate.

Furthermore, the Court found that the Service’s decision to allow agency personnel to kill wolves for management objectives didn’t contain “adequate protection” for the species.

“Mexican wolves have struggled for almost a century, largely because of human efforts to eradicate the species,” said Judy Calman, staff attorney for the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance. “These embattled, iconic animals shouldn’t also have to struggle against the very agency tasked with saving them, and we’re extremely pleased that the court agrees.”

The Court said the Service chose not to take the best science into account when it crafted the rule, and explained this was central in its ruling, stating in its opinion that the USFWS “misapplied and misinterpreted [scientific] findings in such a manner that the recovery of the species is compromised.”

Part of what the Court saw as an “egregious oversight” involved the Service using findings from 1998 instead of more recent science better representing the Mexican wolf’s current plight.

“This is not a case in which the agency was required to choose between conflicting scientific evidence,” United States District Judge Jennifer G. Zipps wrote. “On the contrary, the best available science consistently shows that recovery requires consideration of long-term impacts, particularly the subspecies’ genetic health.”

“Unfortunately, politics supplants wildlife biology in key parts of the Service’s Mexican wolf reintroduction rule,” said Matthew Bishop with the Western Environmental Law Center. “It’s amazing we had to go to court to prove that population caps, more killing, and less territory harms Mexican wolves, but the court made the right decision today.”

The 2015 rule will remain in place until the Service drafts a new one. The 2017 Mexican Wolf Recovery Plan, currently being litigated, was built partially on assumptions from the 2015 rule. It now seems possible that Monday’s ruling could factor into that lawsuit as well.

(EnviroNews Nature) – Environmental organizations filed a lawsuit on January 30, 2018, in U.S. District Court in Arizona against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), alleging the agency violated the Endangered Species Act (ESA) by ignoring science relevant to the recovery of the beleaguered Mexican wolf (Canis…

(EnviroNews Colorado) – After decades of deliberation the final revision of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s (USFWS) Mexican Wolf Recovery Plan (the Plan) was released at the end of November, but former USFWS officials tell EnviroNews it strays far from scientists’ minimum recommendations for recovery of the…

(EnviroNews Nature) – Denver, Colorado – The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) can continue to release Mexican gray wolves (Canis lupus baileyi) from captivity into the wild after the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned an injunction halting the program on April 25, 2017, which conservationists say…

(EnviroNews Wyoming) – Gray wolves (Canis lupus) will no longer be protected under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in the state of Wyoming. That was the ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, on March 3, 2017, which also happened to be…

(EnviroNews Colorado) – Special-interest politics – not sound science – decides the fate of species on the brink of extinction in the U.S., according to a new expose’ from the Endangered Species Coalition. The report, Suppressed: How Politics Drowned Out Science for Ten Endangered Species (Suppressed), profiles ten…

(EnviroNews USA Headline News) – Washington D.C. – The Center for Biological Diversity (the Center) filed a lawsuit in federal district court in Anchorage, Alaska, on April 20, 2017, against the U.S. Department of Interior (Interior) and Secretary Ryan Zinke, after President Donald Trump signed House Joint Resolution…

(EnviroNews Nature) – Playground, a news and media site, has produced a graphic video showing shocking hunting practices that are now legal in Alaska’s wildlife refuges. These methods, which have been called “scientifically indefensible” and “unsportsmanlike” by defenders of animal rights, include hunting bears from aircraft, killing bear…

(EnviroNews Montana) – The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation (RMEF), which has funded wolf-killing derbies in Idaho to the tune of $150,000 since 2013, is now seeking to expand its $1,000-per-kill bounty program to the neighboring state of Montana. RMEF provides funds to the Foundation for Wildlife Management (F4WM),…

(EnviroNews Washington) – Olympia, Washington – The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) announced October 19, 2016, that it would spare the remaining four members of the now demolished Profanity Peak Wolf Pack, after already having killed seven of its wolves (Canis lupus) to appease cattle ranchers….

(EnviroNews Idaho) – Boise, Idaho – On June 1, 2016, five prominent environmental organizations filed a lawsuit in federal district court against the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Wildlife Services for killing over 650 wolves in the state of Idaho over the past decade. Wildlife Services is…

(EnviroNews Oregon) – Five environmental groups filed a lawsuit on February 3, 2016, in U.S. District Court against the federal agency Wildlife Services, over what they say is the illegitimate killing of wolves in the state of Oregon. WildEarth Guardians, Center for Biological Diversity, Predator Defense, and Project…

(EnviroNews Idaho) – Facing a lawsuit from conservation groups, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has revoked a permit allowing for a “predator derby” to take place on approximately three million acres of public lands in north-central Idaho near the town of Salmon. The derby originally called for…

(EnviroNews Polls) – In December of 2015, several environmental groups, spearheaded by WildEarth Guardians, won a pivotal lawsuit against Wildlife Services, a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) agency, for its wolf-killing program in Washington State. On February 3, 2016, WildEarth Guardians, in concert with four other groups, filed…

It is beyond heinous what our government is doing by allowing the vile slaughter of our magnificent wild. We must begin to vote our conscience and vote our corruption on both sides of the aisle. The mass majority in the U.S. have no representation so…their voices are not heard. But special interest groups are heard loud and clear, hence the killing continues!